These two keys toggle the full-width (double-byte), and the half-width (single-byte”) character sets when typing with the Chinese IME.  Full-width characters look like “ｔｈｉｓ “ while half-width is what people are normally used to.  The default key combinations are easy to press by accident in situations such as capitalizing a title.  Therefore, it is beneficial to remove this hotkey.

Solution

Because changing the key settings manually through Windows does not work, one must go through the registry.  The following fix applies to the current user that is logged in.  Apply the following registry keys and then restart the computer.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000010]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000011]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000012]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000070]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000071]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000072]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000201]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000202]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\Hot Keys\00000203]
“Virtual Key”=hex:ff,00,00,00
“Key Modifiers”=hex:00,c0,00,00
“Target IME”=hex:00,00,00,00

In the registry, one can also navigate to “HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelInput MethodHot Keys” and see a list of folders with names that have eight numbers in them with leading zeroes.  Each folder here represents a particular hotkey related to an IME.  Clicking on one of these folders will show data for these keys.

Setting “Key Modifiers” to “00 c0 00 00” removes the use of the Ctrl and Alt key for the hotkey.
Setting “Virtual Key” to “ff 00 00 00” sets the key to nothing.
The key “Target IME” can be left as is.

In the case of the “Shift+Space” hotkey, “Shift” is the key modifier and “Space” is the virtual key.

It is unclear which folder corresponds to the key that toggles the character shape, therefore this fix is a blanket approach.

If the Above Still Fails

Try combining the fix with an installation of Microsoft Office IME 2010, which can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/zh-tw/details.aspx?FamilyID=60984ecd-9575-411a-bd38-2294f17c4131&displaylang=zh-tw.  Despite the name, it does not require Microsoft Office to be installed. After installing, apply the registry keys and restart.

Today was supposed to be the day for me to catch up on homework since I had missed a week of class due to my Class 5 road test and my gum graft surgery.  Ivan was nice enough to lend me his notes.  Rather than doing homework today, I decided that I was fed up with Solidworks 2008 not running properly on my Windows 7 x64.

I had previous downloaded the SP4.0 for Solidworks 2008 in hopes that it will allow me to run it on my computer.  To try to get that update to work I would have to install Solidworks 2008 SP0.0.  Due to an unknown reason it would not install on my computer.  Despite the fact that Solidworks would say ‘this program does not support Vista x64’, I had gotten it to install by setting the compatibility mode.  This time around, the installer simply got stuck.

I then thought of alternate methods of getting the program on my computer.  I looked to my virtual machine, which was my temporary solution.  It ran Windows XP and could barely run SW08.  I tried to send the files through the network.  I couldn’t send the files through with a hard drive since it was being used to install the program (yes, the installer was stuck, but I left it running to see if it would respond).  I had trouble sending the files through the network since I had disabled all the network services on the virtual machine to save memory.

A few hours later I still did not have Internet back, but I did however have access to the LAN.  That was all I needed.  While doing the network transfer, an idea hit me.  I turned off Bitdefender and the Solidworks install worked.

After the install, I immediately updated the installation to SP4.0.  I cracked the program as was instructed by the readme.  The program still didn’t work.  I was not shocked.  It told me that it could not find license information.  I figured that it was a side effect of the 64 bit OS.  I took another look at my patch files and saw that it was a 32 bit patch (the title never said).  I looked for x64 versions of SW08 on eMule, but could not find any fast downloads.

Later on an idea for a fix hit me.  I realized that the 32 bit programs were stored in ‘Program Files (x86), which meant I put the license file in the wrong place.  It was supposed to go into ‘C:Program FilesSolidWorks’. I missed the x86 part.  I changed that and ran the program again.  Still no good.  I looked in the registry to see if my registry keys were correct and I stumbled upon the folder where 32 bit software registry entries were stored.  I then realized that my registry info had to go in there instead.  I fixed that and tried it one more time.  It was still no good.  Then i thought, ‘if there was a place for 32 bit registry keys, would that apply for system32 as well?’  Turns out I was correct.  I put the dll file in ‘c:WindowsWow6432’.  I ran SW again and it works.  I felt like a total genius.